As I'm leaving the station house I see two partners who, from what Kensi said, were forced to work together. One of the partners who, just like me, had transferred from earth.
"Hey Ross. Hey Armitage." I say, passing the partners.
"Hey Deeks." Both Ross and Armitage said without looking up from their paperwork.
I exit the stationhouse and get into my car. We had another debrief because there had been another murder, and Kensi is still in the wind. I get into my car and head home. On the way home, my personal debrief with Hetty was still ringing in my ears. Hetty practically accused Kensi disappearance being my fault.
M.A.M.
Hetty's office-
I entered Hetty's office to see her staring out the window.
"Kensi carries a special A-class license." Hetty says.
"I know." I say.
"But she choose to become a cop. A good one. You understand what I'm getting at?" Hetty asked.
"Yeah." I said.
"The reason she disappeared is because of you, Mr. Deeks." Hetty said, turning from looking out her office window.
"Hetty, you can interrogate me all you want. I'm used to it." I say.
"Mr. Deeks, that won't be necessary. If you don't know anything, that's good enough for me, and leave it at that. I'm no Sherlock Holmes, but I've learned from experience to follow my instinct." Hetty said.
Something about her next sentence puts me on edge.
"I have a hunch there's some kind of connection between Kensi and the killings of the Third types." Hetty said.
I scrunch my face up to make it look like I was thinking seriously about what she said; while in reality I was trying to cover up that fact that I'm seething inside that Hetty would assume that Kensi could possibly be involved with the slayings. I hear Hetty chuckling as she continues, and halfway through her sentence she turns to look back out the window.
"This could get real fun. If an officer is rumored to be a humanoid, the crap could hit the fan, so let's just keep this between you, me and the wall." Hetty said.
M.A.M.
I can still hear Hetty's warning echoing in my thoughts as I pick up speed to get home. I'm tired, and it's been a long day.
Kensi isn't a good cop. She's a great one. I think.
I park my car around the corner, and make my way up to my apartment. The rain that started as I was leaving the station house was relentless. It continues to fall, soaking everyone unlucky enough to find shelter from its assault. My knee is starting to ache, but the pain is bearable for the time being. As I approach my room I can see the keypad light up as I entered the passcode.
9-4-6-4-5-3-2-1-8-3-0-7
I enter my apartment and look around. I don't know why I bother to look around, but I do anyways; Kensi isn't here. I look at the desk against the wall on my left and I can see that Kensi might have been here because I can see one of her side arms, two magazines and some cleaning equipment out on the table. A shadow is cast on the back wall of the rain cascading down the window. I cross over to the bed, and sit down. I sit in silence for a moment contemplating where Kensi could be. That was until my knee started to flare up in pain, eliciting a grunt from me. I rest my hand on my knee, willing the pain to go away.
"Always hurts like heck when the rain comes." I say.
Something lights up because where darkness had enshrouded the right side of my body, now a light is shining brightly.
"Hmm?" I say, turning to look at what was cause the disturbance.
I turn to see a picture of Kensi and some older gentleman standing side by side. Then the picture comes to life, and I see Kensi throw her arms around the man. The man smiles as he embraces Kensi. Deep down inside I'm envious of Kensi relationship with the man because he looking upon her with love; that was something I never got from my father. After a moment of silence, something beckons for me to speak.
"Start message." I say.
I hear a beeping sound as the video screen on the wall behinds me lights up with the letters REC in the upper left hand corner.
"Hey, where are you? Are you okay?" I ask, with a chuckle. "Your partner's concerned. Hetty's no dummy. She suspects you're a Third. It appears D'Anclaude is working with someone, because Thirds are still being murdered. Kensi, don't let bitterness change you. Come back, please."
Elsewhere in the city, Kensi happened to be crossing the bridge in the pouring rain. She was no longer wearing her signature red outfit. She had on a cyber punk cloak, thigh-high stockings and boots but very little else can be seen on her. Just as she got off the bridge and made her way into an alley, Kensi got my message.
M.A.M.
Couple of days later I'm called out to another crime scene, and it was a particularly nasty one. Detectives were station outside to keep the neighbors back, and the press from entering the scene. Inside I can see lightning light up the sky, and hear the thunderclaps punctuating the silence periodically. The lightning and thunder went on for hours. From my position, I have knelt down to get a better look at the victim's face, I can Eric see standing next to me holding a piece of cloth over his mouth and nose; the smell was pretty bad. On the other side of me two more officers from C.S.U.; one was unpacking a tool box and the other was take pictures.
The victim was killed in front of the book case, which was to the left of her desk; there were a few books scattered around the floor, and there were two bullet holes in the book case. The woman had two bullet holes in her head. One was smack dab in the middle of her forehead, and the other above her right eyebrow. The gunshot to her eyebrow broke her glasses, shattering the lens in two. There was copious amounts of blood all over her face, most of it cover by her long silver hair; some of the blood has soaked into her blouse and skirt. The victim was a writer because the latest novel she was working on was still open on the computer on her desk. The blink cursor was waiting for the next word to be spoken. The lightning flashes on occasion, drowning out the woman's features.
"This makes number seven. Oh, God, I think I'm gonna puke." Eric said, the queasiness thick in his voice.
"Who the heck is doing this?" I ask.
"I can only think of two people with the means and motivation." Eric said.
"Hmm?" I ask, looking up at Eric.
"I'm talking about Rene D'Anclaude and Kensi." Eric said.
"What's that?" I ask, not believing what I just heard.
"Yeah, I know. It's weird to think about, but she talked to me about it once. She pities the robots used for crime, so she kills them quickly. But I can't believe she'd actually-" Eric said, trailing off.
We both know that Kensi wouldn't kill unjustifiably, but she is capable of killing a robot and has done in the past. I ask the question; albeit, I already know the answer to that question.
"Does that mean Kensi is a suspect?" I ask.
"Well, you can't just deny the evidence. The woman's last words said it all." Eric said.
On the computer screen her last words were written:
Who's there? Who are you? Are you Armitage? Are you the one that contacted me? You fooled me.
"The whole department is shocked, but Hetty had suspicions about her all along. She's already issued a warrant for her arrest, and there's an A.P.B. out on her." Eric continued.
"Why that sly old fox." I say.
I get an idea and turn to the computer.
"Access mail. Log file: Armitage." I say.
On the screen I see my words being written.
"Open file." I say.
When the computer goes to access the file, the words No Graphic appear on the screen. There was silence for a moment, until we hear a voice of a young boy, possibly a teenager.
"This is Pluto." The voice in the computer said.
"It's Pluto." I say, to no one in particular.
"I'm sending the message by use of Armitage's I.D. I'm a Third, just like you and all the others." Pluto continued.
"Hey, Eric. Find out where this mail originated from." I say, with Pluto continuing in the back ground.
"You got it." Eric said.
As I'm leaving the crime scene I send a message to Kensi that I found about Pluto. She writes back saying that she's found him, and that she wants me to come along. We meet a few days later at a school where Pluto attends. I pull up to the school and I see Kensi sitting on top of the jungle gym. In the distance I can hear the laughter of children and one asking about going to see a movie over the weekend. I announce myself before I approach Kensi; not wanting to get injured. I remember what she did to D'Anclaude.
"Hey, I was worried about you." I say, as I was approaching the playground equipment.
"I used to love the playground after school. I was a pretty clumsy kid though." Kensi said.
Hmm. I think to myself, trying to imagine Kensi as kid.
"I took a tumble off the seesaw once and bawled all the way home." Kensi continued.
"Listen, did you know that M.P.D. has been searching for you?" I ask.
I watch as Kensi leaps down off the jungle gym, and the pulls her visor off.
"But you're looking for Pluto, right? Let's go." Kensi says, as runs up to me, linking our arms, and then starts to drag me to the school; as a giggle escaping her lips.
"Kensi?" I say, more a statement than a question, stopping Kensi in her tracks.
"What?" Kensi asks, baffled by my reaction.
"I believe in you." I say, quietly just so the two us can hear it.
Kensi face was blank for a moment, and then she relaxed as tiny smile graced her face. We enter the building and started searching the building; going from room to room. Then after a half an hour of searching Kensi announces.
"There's that's him. I'm sure of it." Kensi says, looking through the window in the door into the classroom.
"Huh? But he's a boy." I say.
I see a boy, maybe thirteen, sitting on a piano doing something a handheld computer. He has dark skin, very short brown hair, and brown eyes. He's wearing a cyber punk coat, a white shirt, shorts, and boots.
"How do you do, Pluto? It's nice to meet you." Kensi says, as she opens the door and we enter the room.
"Please don't call me by my handle again. You can use my given name: Dominic Vail." He said.
Kensi laughs, and then continues.
"I'm sorry. By the way, shouldn't you be in class?" Kensi asks, nonchalantly.
"No. I'm transferring my thoughts to the main memory at the navigation center." Dominic said.
"Hmm?" Kensi asks.
Kensi and I share a look.
"What for?" We ask.
Dominic sighs, and then continues.
"To make a backup of myself, obviously." He says.
Dominic slides off the piano, puts his hands and computer in his pockets, and then heads for the door.
"Well, let's go." He says.
"Huh? Where?" Kensi asks.
"To the memory server at the ad tower, of course. You wanna learn the purpose of the Thirds, don't you?" Dominic asks.
We concede his point, and exit the building. We jump in my car head to the ad tower, and the drive is made in silence. When we arrive at the tower, we make our way in and head for the elevator; it's an open air freight elevator. When the elevator is half way down the shaft I break the silence.
"I can't believe it. You're a Third?" I ask.
"Yes, I'm a Third. The last one made." Dominic said.
At that very moment the elevator suddenly stopped, causing Kensi to gasp.
"What's wrong? Why'd the elevator stop?" Kensi asked, her senses we thrown into overdrive. Almost as if she was expecting.
"I don't know." I say
The shaft is so quiet that we can hear the beeping coming from the control panel. Then the elevator lurches ever so slightly.
"Huh?" The three of us ask.
Then, all of a sudden, the elevator starts plummeting to the bottom of the shaft, and I pull Dominic into me, trying to cover him with my body, while I hit the controls trying to get a response.
"It won't stop." I say, gruffly.
I struggle against the downward momentum, while holding Dominic close, as I walk to the back of the elevator cart. Dominic starts talking, but I can barely hear him over the wind rush past my head.
"We're dropping pretty fast. At this rate, we're going to die for sure." He said.
I have my eyes closed to protect them from the wind. I notice it gets dark, and the wind dies down, as Kensi shadow falls over me. I open my eyes to see that Kensi is going to use her body to brace the fall for the three off us. I noticed that under that cape that Kensi was wearing nothing but red lingerie under it.
That is definitely not standard M.P.D. getup. I think to myself.
"Deeks, hold on tight to him." Kensi says.
Kensi squats down, grabbing the rail with her hands and placing her feet flat on it. Where nose to nose, and Kensi smells wonderful.
Funny. We all could possibly die, or be mortally wounded, and I'm getting turned on by Kensi. I think.
"Do you really think this is going to work?" I ask, gruffly.
"You got any ideas?" Kensi asks.
I just stare Kensi in the eyes, and she knows my answer. So the three of us are riding on an elevator that's barreling down the shaft at full speed; at some point we shut our eyes.
Not that closing our eyes is going to magically slow the cart down. I think to myself.
It must have been ten to fifteen minutes before the cart his the bottom. At the bottom of the shaft was a reservoir that had to be fifty to hundred feet deep. The impact upon hitting the water drew a grunt from me and Kensi. My body is experience a higher amount of pain because I'm human. Upon impacting with the walkway at the bottom water it displaced a lot of water, while a steam and dust cloud are thrown into the air from the water cooling off the brakes; also the dust cloud because of the cart colliding with the walkway at a high rate of speed. It takes a few minutes for the clouds to clear, but when it does Kensi finds herself on the cart by herself. About thirty feet she can away see both Dominic and I on the walk way.
We seem to be in a sewer system of some kind. I think.
"Deeks?" Kensi ask, fearing the worse upon seeing my wounded body.
I'm hunched over, bracing my left arm against my chest, and my right arm hangs limply. Grunting as I look up at Kensi because I'm in serious pain; I can fell the blood running down the left side of my face and a trail coming out of my mouth.
"I think my right and ribs are broken." I say, coughing up blood.
I can hear Dominic gasping next to me at the extent of the damage, but something draws his attention to the water.
"Huh?" Dominic says.
Coming out of the water next to Kensi is a mobile walker; its purpose was to capture suspects. The walker is comprised of the pod where the operator sits, two arms – or the equivalent of arms – with hands at the ends of the appendages, and a giant wheel on the back. It's possible, given the rash string of murders, that the operator could be using to the walker to kill all of us. Which is my current thought process because I can see the camera on the walker turn to Kensi and it recognizes her as a robot.
That would be our killer. I think.
"Kensi don't get any closer!" I exclaim.
Just as finish I speaking one of the arms reared back and the hand was being slammed down on top of Kensi. She gasps, and barely jumps out of the way in time.
"Darn you." Kensi says, pulling her gun.
As soon as her feet are back in contact with the ground Kensi lines up a shot and starts firing upon the walker. A few shoots hit the pod, but then the closes arm is raised to block the rest.
"He's fast." Kensi says.
Kensi holsters her weapon, and then runs over to me and Dominic. Kensi kneels down, and prepares to help me up.
"Come on! We gotta run for it!" Kensi exclaims.
"Go on. Leave me here." I say.
"No! I'll help you. Let's go!" Kensi exclaims.
I can hear the joints on the walker groan as it tries to get around the aftermath of the elevator wreckage. I get my left arm hooked around Kensi neck, and the three of us take off running down an enclosed hallway. I'm grunting trying to keep up with Kensi pace; my grip on reality is slipping because of the immense pain that I'm in. I can hear Kensi panting from carrying my dead weight, and I can hear Dominic's footsteps behind us. We can hear the walker entering the hallway. Dominic gets around in front of us. We come to a bridge that connects the two walkways, but Dominic decides to keep on our path in case there's a way out up ahead.
At the end of the walkway is a fence that is blocking us in, as the water cascades over the side into another body of water some hundred feet below.
We're not going to survive that jump. I think.
"Oh, my God." Kensi says.
From behind us we can hear the walker scraping against the bridges and the ceiling. We all turn to see the walker drive by our hallway, and I can hear Dominic gasping. And then not long after the walker passes our hallway it doubles back and is coming towards us.
"It looks like the only choice is to fight." Kensi says.
Kensi gently pushes me off of her arm, which hurt like crazy, and took off running down the hallway at the walker; the exhaustion and pain causes me collapse onto the floor. Upon closing in on the walker Kensi jumps onto it and pulls a panel off, and jams her coat into it. Underneath the panel was an exhaust port, so in time it would overheat. The walker lurched destroying the bridge it was about to cross over, which send Kensi flying. I can hear her screaming as she is thrown into the air, and I can hear her cough up water. As Kensi break the water she sucks in a mouth full of air. Just as she is looking up at the walker one of its hands grabs Kensi and pulls her out of the water.
I watch as the driver inspects Kensi, and then starts to slowly crush her in its grasp. I hear her scream, as I look up at the walker I can see Kensi struggling to get out of its grasp. I can hear Kensi grunts of pain as I reach for my gun. Dominic reacts when he sees my gun pointed at the walker, and moves to raise my arm.
"Aim it up!" I growl.
"If Kensi killed, then there's gonna be no hope for me." Dominic says.
Dominic lines up the shot, and I can see something glowing in my peripheral vision. Next thing I hear besides Kensi screams is my gun firing off.
How did he do that? I know I didn't pull the trigger. I can barely lift my arm. I think.
The shot hits at a point that causes the lip of the pod to pop off. There's a cloud of smoke as the atmosphere of the walker's pod is adjusting to the atmosphere of the sewer system. I can hear Kensi gasping as she falls into the water. Just as she is falling into the water I can hear D'Anclaude cackling at our feeble attempts to stop him.
"It's D'Anclaude. I just don't believe it." Kensi says, in shocked surprise after she dragged herself out of the water.
"Surprise, surprise. Ha. Did you miss me?" D'Anclaude asks.
My grasp on reality is waning again, and I hear Kensi yell an obscene word at D'Anclaude. Kensi fires her gun at D'Anclaude. Instead of blocking the incoming shots, D'Anclaude attacks Kensi with the closes arm. As Kensi jumped out of the way D'Anclaude hit the break and gas at the same time, which causes the wheel to spin forward. Kensi stared in shocked amazement at the wheel come at her. The wheel made contact Kensi, which sent her flying into fence, trapping both of Kensi hands and feet between the posts. I can hear Kensi gasping as she hits the grate.
"Oh! Ow!" Kensi exclaims in pain.
D'Anclaude cackles as he pulls the walker up the grate. I can see Kensi struggling against her restraints as D'Anclaude starts to talk.
"I won't let you die alone, cheri. The other two will join you." He says, lifting Kensi chin so she can see both me and Dominic on the ground.
Kensi gets her hand free as she screams more obscenities at D'Anclaude, and punches him in the nose with a right hook; which sends the walker flying back and I can hear a D'Anclaude screaming at the top of him lungs. As the walker crashes into the water D'Anclaude screams had died out.
"He's not human." Kensi says, in shocked surprise.
The exhaust port is starting to overheat because of the cloak that is keeping air from escaping.
"Nice right hook, but I'm going to crush the three of you and get on with my life. I have places to go and robots to kill." D'Anclaude exclaims.
At that moment the circuit board on the walker blew because the buildup of exhaust, and started to lurch forward.
"Huh?" D'Anclaude says.
The tire starts to screeching, as if it wanted to respond to D'Anclaude's wishes, but the walker kept moving forward. D'Anclaude was looking around wildly for whatever was causing the walker to act up.
"What the-" D'Anclaude started to ask when he saw that he was nose to nose with Kensi.
"Hi there. Bon voyage, Rene." Kensi said, and then pointed down.
D'Anclaude gasped at his misfortune, and Kensi smiled a wicked grin at him because D'Anclaude didn't have to foresight to remove his handcuff that Kensi had thrown at him back at the airport a few weeks ago.
"Give me the keys! Please unlock it!" D'Anclaude exclaimed.
What bad guy starts pleading for you to save him? I think to myself.
D'Anclaude started screaming as he went over the cliff with the walker.
"Bye-bye." Kensi says as she jumps off the walker.
We can barely hear the walker splashes into the water at the bottom of the cliff.
A/N: I'm going to be post a lot of stories in the near future, and they won't always be N.C.I.S., but don't worry. I have another forum that I write stories for, and one story is pretty long. I won't be taking a break from writing, I'm just going to take my time with posting your stories. That's all.